Joanna's music blog

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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

I can't believe it's already been four weeks since the start of school! That means music classes in both the Lower and Middle Schools have been meeting for three weeks. This trimester's Middle School classes include 1st-year (5th grade) Music Rotation (general music) and a class called "Ukuleles and Glee!" in which we are learning ukulele and singing popular songs. Our big group song is Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up," which we're arranging with multiple ukulele parts and harmony. I'm already a Jason Mraz fan, but that song is something extra special. The Middle School is also looking forward to auditions for our annual musical, which will be "Seussical, Jr." Auditions are in October, rehearsals begin with second trimester electives in November, and performances are in February.

Lower School is off to a great start! Forest and Mountain 3rd-years and new 4th-years received their recorders week before last, and they are already playing songs with their first 3 notes, B-A-G. If you visit campus at lunchtime, you might even hear some enthusiastic students playing their recorders on the playground! We've especially enjoyed playing songs from the new Quaver recorder curriculum, including the instant classic (and earworm) "Perry the Sheep" (fell asleep, did a sheep sleep walk, and ate a recorder...). River and Sky classes have learned several new songs, sung a round, played drums, and learned about steady beat and meter.

We've also started our first round of music parties, a reward for classes whose music notes make it to the "Party Space!" Our parties have included traditional play-party games like "Old King Glory" and "Jump Josie," freeze dancing, and a couple of OK Go videos!

Our Lower School has a wonderful new librarian, Natalie, and we are talking about a possible collaboration in which students will make book soundtracks. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, check out Natalie's blog here!

Sunday, August 31, 2014

I took some time this Labor Day weekend to record my little song "Go In Peace" with my two older kids. I wrote this song last year as an exit song for our weekly Meeting for Worship time in the Lower School (oops! I say "yearly" on the video. I was quite distracted by my 1-year-old busy destroying the house off-screen). Here it is:

The lyrics:
Go in peace, go in peace
With this blessing in your heart
May your light shine brightly wherever you are.

Go in peace, go in peace
May this silence teach us grace
To help each other make the world a better place.

Feel free to use this song if it works for you, but please let me know in the comments!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

*note: I wrote this post because I have used Evernote for years and truly think it's an amazing tool. I have no affiliation with the company and this post is based entirely on my personal experience.

I'm always telling everyone about my very favorite organizational tool, Evernote, but somehow I've never written about it other than a mention in my post about my PLN workflow. One of Evernote's greatest features is that it is just as simple or as complex as you need it to be. Google "Evernote and..." and you'll find thousands of ideas of how to use it in any context you can imagine. Here's a screenshot from Evernote on my Mac:

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Over the summer, I've gotten to know the popular site Teachers Pay Teachers. Kind of like Etsy, it is most valuable if you have some time to spend combing through resources to separate the truly useful/relevant materials from the fluffy–but I suppose that is true of any teacher supply/curriculum resource! There is quite a lot of great stuff on there for music educators, from bulletin board ideas for the non-crafty (that would be me) to printable songs and entire curricula. It's a fabulous opportunity for creative teachers to share the resources they've worked so hard on without having to write a whole book and find a publisher. Check it out!

Saturday, August 23, 2014

It's that time of year... Everywhere I look I see music teachers posting questions about lesson plans, preferably inexpensive or FREE! I like to change up my activities every year–both because I have combined-age classrooms and would need at least a 2-year cycle to avoid students repeating the same curriculum, and because that's just how I roll! This year will be the first year I've had the Quaver's Beyond Marvelous Curriculum for the entire school year (I gradually rolled it in last year, starting in October), but because I see my kids twice weekly, and because I obsessively customize any curriculum I use, AND because I spend a lot of time following the lead of my students, I'm constantly looking for new ideas anyway.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of online resources. These are simply the resources I've used the most, and a great jumping-off point for teachers looking for new ideas. Most blogs have a handy-dandy "blogroll" on the sidebar linking to THAT teacher's favorite blogs and resources for further exploration. So here are some of my favorites:

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

I've got several posts in the works... but in the meantime, I wanted to let you know that my enhanced iBook recorder method, Recorder Interactive, is on a summer/back-to-school sale for just $3.99 in the iBookstore for a limited time! I've enjoyed the feedback I've received and hope the book is a good resource for both budding recorder players and general music teachers. Enjoy!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Recorder Interactive: A Magical Method has finally been released in the iBookstore! Designed from scratch for iBooks on the iPad and Mac, this new recorder method includes 75 pages of instruction, over 30 songs, and over 100 audio files and scads of interactive features. Suitable for ages 8 to adult, it can be used for self-instruction, as a lesson book, or as a classroom method. I'm hoping to have it tested out in some one-to-one iPad schools–please contact me if your school is interested!

Recorder Interactive is priced at $7.99 in the iBookstore, but you can download a free sample that includes the entire first chapter and several pages from later in the book for your perusal. If you are a music educator, I have a few free promo codes if you'd like a review copy. Thank you so much for checking out this labor of love!